It Was a Workshop and a Warehouse. Now It’s a Family Home With a Soaring Blue Stair

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Architect: Judit Falgueras Arquitectura / @juditfalgueras

Structural Engineer: DimArk Estructuras

Photographer: Joan Guillamat / @guillamat

From the Architect: "A local businessman who specialized in extracting wood from the forest built a small industrial building in the 1960s. Simple, functional and very humble, this space served as a warehouse, mechanic’s workshop, and finally as a parking lot for people from all over the city. Practically sixty years later, a family, new to the area, saw in this warehouse, which had fallen into disuse, the opportunity to convert it into a home.

"The project required a new metal structure as a key element that forms the first floor slab base and a total rehabilitation of the roof. The existing truss was in poor condition and would be replaced with a Vierendeel beam to illuminate the distributor/study on the second floor. The new structure supported only on the party walls and on two points of the existing basement walls, making a balanced intervention and avoiding the re-cementation of the building. The first-floor elevation was built with a timber-framed facade and a light wood roof. Taking into consideration that the existing beams were in good condition and that they were extracted by the builder from his forests in the area, they were repurposed for the roof, and the wood from the old truss was transformed into furniture. It became the shelf and the table in the kitchen/dining room, and the bathroom cabinet on the ground floor.

"The existing backyard facade and the party walls of the house are isolated, ensuring an envelope that limits the demand for energy. Strategic openings in the roof were created to promote the chimney effect, thus allowing natural cross ventilation of all rooms.

"In terms of distribution, the ground floor accesses the garage, a dining room and kitchen, accompanied by a bathroom and a pantry, which is converted into a storage space for the garage. The living and dining/kitchen area is unchanged, diaphanous and open, with a new relationship to the outside through the windows on the new terrace and patio. The distribution of the first floor is subjected to the order of the structure, which organizes the distributor/study spaces, the three bedrooms, the gallery and the bathroom.

"The proposal rehabilitated and enlarged the existing garage and converted it into a dwelling, maintaining all the existing elements of interest and the essence and sensations of the original space."